Verifying Legit Counter Offers

[Michael Seutin]

A year ago, I bought a ppty in Texas, and after submitting my offer, I was countered, I went up in price, and I got the ppty.
I asked my realtor if we could verify that the counter was legit, and not a trick from the other realtor to up the price.
I was told that some realtor do that. First of all, it that true that some realtor lie about counter offer to up the price.
Second, I was told by my realtor that because of privacy issues, I wasn't allowed to verify if the counter was legit.
All that left me feeling vulnerable, and now I am a bit paranoid, that it might happen again.
Do you guys know of a way to avoid that problem, thanks

[J Scott]

Ah...that's completely different...

This is a very common game that REO listing agents are playing these days, and there's really no way to know for certain whether you're up against other offers or not.

When i first started, these things used to piss me off. In fact, I used to withdraw my bid if I thought the listing agent was lying about other offers, just to see if they would come clean and ask me to resubmit (only worked once :).

But, over time, I've come to realize that this is just the listing agent's attempt to get her seller the most money...which is her job. Can't fault him for that.

My suggestion in these situations is to just submit the best offer that works for you, and not stress over it. In many cases, there won't be other offers and you'll get the property for a price that still works.